Hugo Ekitike’s World Cup dream is in doubt after he was taken off on a stretcher during Liverpool’s Champions League defeat by Paris Saint-Germain.
The 23-year-old striker – signed for £69million from Frankfurt last summer – suffered what appeared to be a nasty injury in the first half of the 2-0 defeat at Anfield that condemned Arne Slot’s side to a 4-0 aggregate defeat.
And team-mate Ibrahima Konate said after the game: ‘I am very sad for him, and I hope he will come back. I think it’s bad. I don’t know. I heard many things. With the World Cup, all the things coming this summer, it’s very hard for him at this moment – and I send him my prayers.’
Ekitike will be sent for further scans in the next 48 hours and Slot hinted that he may not play again this season, saying: ‘Hugo, we all saw on the video and clips, that doesn’t look good. For 88 minutes until tonight we have played with Florian (Wirtz), Alex (Isak) and Hugo together.
‘We added about 27 to that tonight and I would be surprised if we add more minutes to that this season. The good thing is Alex is back.’
Ekitike won his first cap for France last September and was expected to be part of the squad for this summer’s World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico. That now appears in doubt.
The English champions had chances and a penalty overturned at Anfield but the damage was done in the first leg in Paris. Ousmane Dembele scored a brace against the run of play in the second half to put the tie beyond reach.
But Slot insists the future looks bright for Liverpool despite crashing out.
Slot said: ‘Of course we are very disappointed because I think there were parts of the second half where you could feel, “If we could just score now, this could become a very special night”.
‘But the future looks very bright for this team, for this club. We have shown we can compete with the champions of Europe in our stadium. To be the dominant team, not many teams can be dominant against PSG and create as many chances as we did.’
Liverpool had a second-half spot-kick overturned by VAR at 0-0 when Alexis Mac Allister was felled in the penalty area, much to the dismay of Slot.
‘I think probably last week we had too much luck and we ran out of luck today,’ said the boss, referring to Ibrahima Konate being lucky to escape punishment for a push in Paris.
‘We have conceded a few penalties this season and I could name them all for you, but if a pen is given, usually VAR tells you I see contact then I should support the on-field decision. I wasn’t surprised that this went against us but that wasn’t the story of the game.’
